Behavioural study is too dry for its own good
Non-fiction: Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioural Economics. By Richard H Thaler. Allen Lane, €26.60. Reviewed by Brendan Daly
In 2012, the chief executive of the US department store chain JC Penney announced that he was ending “fake prices”. All products ending in .99 – the mythical suggested retail price – would be rounded up to the nearest dollar.
The decision was a disaster: JC Penney’s sales and stock price plummeted. Although customers were scarcely ...